Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 7, Issue 2, Article 10 (Dec., 2006)
Behiye AKCAY
The analysis of how to improve student understanding of the nature of science: A role of teacher 

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Implications of desired teacher preparation and their instructional decisions designed to improve student views of NOS

This paper explored the teacher role to improve student understanding of NOS. I have taken the position that teacher understanding of the NOS affects their classroom practices and curriculum decisions as well as their student understanding of NOS.

Traditional science programs that emphasize only the factual content of science do not promote an understanding of NOS. For this reason; both the scientists and science teachers generally have traditional beliefs about NOS (Akindehin, 1988; Palmquist & Finley, 1997; Pomeroy, 1993). However, as stated in The National Science Education Standards [NSES] (NRC, 1996) teacher knowledge of both science and science teaching are needed:

All teachers of science must have a strong, broad base of scientific knowledge extensive enough for them to understand the nature of scientific inquiry, its central role in science, and how to use the skills and processes of scientific inquiry. (p.59)

NOS is best taught to students early in their academic careers (NSTA, 1982; Lederman & O’Malley, 1990). This is based on the assumption that students are unable to truly understand scientific laws, theories, principles unless they first have a sufficient understanding of the values, assumptions, and processes inherent in the development of scientific knowledge (Lederman & O’Malley, 1990; Abd-El-Khalick et al., 1998). 

Palmquist and Finley (1997) argue that pre-service science teachers have a mixed view of the NOS. They conclude that teachers need the chance to discuss their views of science and of science teaching. Haidar (1999, p.187) indicates that “pre-service and in-service teachers’ views are neither clearly traditional nor clearly constructivist. They have a mixed view about the NOS.” Therefore, during the undergraduate education, pre-service teachers should be provided a more concrete context for learning how to teach and learning about the NOS. The course goals should be to help pre-service teachers develop a variety of methods for teaching science, constructive attitudes toward teaching science, a deeper understanding of some science content areas as emphasized in the national Benchmarks (Dickinson et al., 2000). If pre-service science teachers strongly internalize the significance of teaching as a certain outcome, such an outcome would necessarily become part of their instructional objectives and assessment practices (Bell et al., 2000; Palmquist & Finley, 1997; Lederman & O’Malley, 1990). In Brickhouse’s (1990) study of the beliefs of three practicing teachers’ about NOS and their relationship to their actual classroom practices, she found that their views became more contemporary after the science methods sequence and student teaching.

Teachers construct knowledge about science, their students, and the science classroom during their teacher-education courses. However, pre-service teachers construct most of their pedagogical content knowledge during actual classroom practices (Brickhouse & Bodner, 1992).

More balanced treatments of the philosophy of science; specifically targeted to relate to specific teaching behaviors are needed in pre-service and in-service science teacher education programs if we are to successfully promote more adequate conceptions of NOS among pre-service science teachers (Lederman & Zeidler, 1987). Palmquist and Finley (1997) argue that “teachers could make better curricular decisions with respect to the NOS if they knew how different classroom activities portray the features that concerning the NOS (p.610).  

It is clear that implementation of conceptual change into the practices of teachers will not be easy since dramatic changes in traditional pedagogy are required along with their acceptance of conceptual change instruction by those outside the science classroom. This requires an educated community ready for change and varied learning environment (Jones & Beeth, 1995).

A significant goal of science education is to develop more accurate student views of NOS. Therefore, in setting up and establishing the needed classroom environments new types of learning activities are important. To teach NOS as a part of K-12 science courses, teachers should consider that:

According to Dickinson et al. (2000), MacDonald (1996), and Akerson et al., (2000), a reflective explicit approach to teachers’ views of the NOS was more “effective” than an implicit approach that use hands-on, inquiry-based science activities but do not have any explicit references to various aspects of the NOS. An explicit approach suggests that using elements from history and philosophy of science and instruction which uses various aspects of the NOS to improve science teachers’ conceptions is important if teaching for scientific literacy is to result. An explicit instructional approach gets learners’ attention to related aspects of the NOS through instruction, discussion, and questioning. It makes NOS visible in classroom instruction (Schwartz & Lederman, 2002; Abd-El-Khalick & Lederman, 2000). Rutherford (1964) states that “science teachers must come to know just how inquiry is in fact conducted in the sciences. Until science teachers have acquired a rather thorough grounding in the history and philosophy of the sciences they teach, this kind of understanding will elude them. Until this is done, not much progress toward the teaching of science as inquiry can be expected.” (p.84)

Abd-El-Khalick et al. (1998) reported that better than 90% agreement was achieved for explicit references to NOS in successful science classroom. These results show the effectiveness of the explicit approach in enhancing pre-service teachers’ conceptions of the NOS. Participants view NOS as less significant than other outcomes such as students’ needs and attitudes and specific science content and process skills. Instead they were worried about classroom management and routine tasks. They expressed their discomfort with their own understanding of NOS. They noted a lack of resources and experience for teaching and assessing student understanding of NOS.

Modeling the instructional strategies that are effective with teachers could be an effective tool for affecting how teachers design instruction for their students. Dawkins and Vitale’s (1999) study indicated that teachers’ instructional practices with students are dependent on the strategies used by them in the professional development which result in their own understanding of NOS concepts.

Helping teachers to internalize the instructional importance of NOS may help avoid the lack of attention to NOS in teachers making instructional decisions. A teacher cannot be expected to teach what he/she does not understand. Therefore, educational programs should be based on improving science teachers’ conceptions of NOS with the anticipation that such improved student conceptions can necessarily follow. More professional development activities should focus on teachers’ understandings of NOS attention directly to ways these can be translated into understandings of effective classroom practices. Until both in considered and experienced by teachers success will NOS as a required for effective science teaching may continues to elude their success. Looking at the variation in recent reports combine to see NOS as imperative if returns one to succeed!

 

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